A subscription was started in 1742 to enable Bartram to travel in search of botanical specimens. It was proposed to raise enough for him to continue his travels for three years, he being described as a person who “has had a propensity to Botanicks from his infancy,” and “an accurate observer, of great industry and temperance, and of unquestionable veracity.” The result of these travels was the publication of two very delightful books by this earliest of American botanists. The specimens he collected were sent to Europe, where they attracted Kahn and many other naturalists to this country. In 1751 he published his work, “Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Divers Productions, Animals, etc., made in his Travels from Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego, and the Lake Ontario.” In 1766 appeared “An Account of East Florida, by William Stork, with a Journal kept by John Bartram, of Philadelphia, upon a Journey from St. Augustine, Fla., up the River St. John’s.” He also contributed numerous papers to the Philosophical Transactions from 1740 to 1763. He was the first in this country to form a botanical garden. On the outside of his house, over the front window of his study, was a stone with the inscription, carved by his own hand: “’Tis God alone, Almighty God, The Holy One, by me Adored. John Bartram, 1770;” and an inscription over the door of his greenhouse was: “Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through nature up to Nature’s God.” As the British soldiers were approaching Philadelphia from the Battle of Brandywine, John Bartram greatly feared they would destroy his “beloved garden,” the work of a lifetime. He became very much excited, and said, “I want to die!” and expired half an hour later, September 22, 1777. His remains lie buried in the Friends’ burying ground, Darby. His son William went to Florida to study and collect botanical specimens, returning home in 1771. In 1773, at the instance of the distinguished Quaker physician, Dr. John Fothergill, of London, William spent five years in the study of the natural productions of the Southern States. The results of these investigations were published by Dr. Fothergill. In 1782 he was elected Professor of Botany in the University of Pennsylvania, but declined the appointment on the score of ill health. Besides his discoveries and publications on botany, he prepared the most complete table of American ornithology prior to Wilson’s great work, and he was an assistant of the latter in a portion of his work. He died suddenly, July 22, 1823, just a moment after he had completed writing a sketch of a new specimen of a plant. This first botanical garden in America is situated in West Philadelphia, near Fifty-fourth Street and Woodland Avenue. There is a cider mill, and close by the grave of an old and faithful slave.